Thrive: The Vegan Nutrition Guide to Optimal Performance in Sports and Life

significantly improved. I no longer need an extra day to recover from eating copious amounts of conventional food. Enhanced by increased efficacy, my body now pools its retained energy resources to more quickly recover from muscle damage associated with training. Today, I consume about 30 percent fewer calories than I did just two years ago, yet I have more energy—by means of conservation, rather than consumption.
     
    Instead of feasting on refined foods, I now consume whole foods almost exclusively. Raw, alkalizing, enzyme-intact foods have become the foundation of my diet. Switching my main carbohydrate source from refined starches to whole fruits and vegetables was my starting point. In doing so, the majority of my energy needs, once obtained primarily from carbohydrate, are now being met by a wide variety of fruit, complemented by pseudograins. Although commonly referred to as a grain, pseudograins are actually seeds. Higher in protein, fiber, and trace minerals than grains, pseudograins are also gluten-free. The ones I use most frequently in my recipes are amaranth, buckwheat, and quinoa.
     
    The consumption of nutrient-dense foods reduces the stress response and allows the body to conserve energy, to be used as fuel and building blocks.
     
     
    And so, as I said earlier, the cornerstone of the Thrive Diet is high net-gain foods. It’s that simple. By eating more high net-gain foods, your energy will rise, body fat will decrease, mental clarity will be enhanced, and cravings for refined foods will fade. The Thrive Diet is designed to be easy to follow and stick to. I believe that strictly imposed parameters, though they may work for some people in the short term, are not the way to long-term success. I find that they often create more stress, thereby reducing the effectiveness of the program. The Thrive Diet is a way of life, more of a philosophy than a program. To me, blindly following a strict program is not a mentally healthy way to seek health. I created the Thrive Diet to serve as a platform on which self-reliance can be built.
     
    So what exactly constitutes high net-gain foods? The Thrive Diet of high net-gain foods is based on the following guiding principles. Eat primarily foods that are—
     
    • raw or cooked at low temperature,
    • naturally alkaline-forming foods to pH balance the body (discussed later in this chapter, on page 47),
    • high in nutrients the body can use without having to convert them (I call this one-step nutrition),
    • nutrient-dense whole foods,
    • vitamin- and mineral-rich, from whole-food sources,
    • non-stimulating, to recalibrate the body and eliminate biological debt.
     
     
     
    The tiers of the Thrive Diet pyramid show the suggested ratio of each food group in the daily diet. This is not meant to suggest that foods higher on the pyramid are of any less value than those on the bottom. The different levels combine to deliver a balance of premium nutrition, each group instrumental in the whole. By volume, the diet consists roughly of 45 percent fibrous vegetables; 20 percent fruit; 20 percent legumes, seeds, and pseudograins; 10 percent cold-pressed oils, nuts, and avocado; and 5 percent starchy vegetables and whole grains.
     
    The Thrive Diet Pyramid
     

     
    The pyramid is a guide only. You do not need to strictly adhere to it on a daily basis to gain the benefits of the Thrive Diet. However, longer periods should reflect the proportions illustrated in the pyramid. For example, some snacks might include only one of the food groups—say, fruit; even your diet on an entire day may be outside the guidelines. That’s fine, as long as over the course of a week or so, the diet shapes up to closely resemble the pyramid.
     
    The Thrive Diet food pyramid is based on fiber-rich carbohydrate. Vegetables constitute the base of the pyramid. With an emphasis on leafy green vegetables and colorful vegetables, this tier offers lots of variety. In addition to supplying fibrous carbohydrate, foods in this tier are a rich source of vitamins, minerals, and phytonutrients. These foods include:
     

     

     
    The second tier of the pyramid comprises two sections. The first delivers primarily protein. Legumes, seeds, and pseudograins, this section is broader than it may at first appear. It includes:
     

     
    The second section of this tier consists of simple carbohydrate in the form of fruit, rich in antioxidants. It includes:
     

     
     
    The pyramid’s third tier is